Georg-Simmel-Zentrum für Metropolenforschung

Urban Research Group: NYLON Berlin / Einstein Research Group

The Einstein Research Group NYLON Berlin is the Berlin member of the international NYLON research network with counterparts based at New York University (NYU) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Our group is comprised of selected doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development as well as Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin. Ranging from urban planners to anthropologists, historians to geographers, sociologists to political scientists, the group investigates questions at the forefront of critical social theory.

In an atmosphere of trust and collaboration at weekly meetings, we collectively engage with close readings of theoretical texts and provide one another rich feedback on drafts of dissertation chapters, journal articles and conference presentations. In bringing new forms of text and representations to our individual and collaborative research, we put into practice our claims to develop critical and alternative epistemologies. In combination with external conferences, public events, joint publications, and other collaborations outside the university, we aim to make our academic work visible to wider audiences and in new platforms for public discourse. To ensure our group’s objectives, we have turned research funding from the Einstein Foundation Berlin into a peer-run initiative hosted by the Department of Social Sciences (Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie) at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. We collaborate closely with international colleagues from research institutions in New York City (NYU, Columbia University, Fordham, CUNY, New School for Social Research) and London (LSE, King's College, Goldsmith's), as well as Cambridge University and the University of Chicago.